Australian GP Friday Jordan notes

McLaren and Ferrari strong in free practice
The Formula One 2000 season finally began today with free practice
at the Albert Park, Melbourne. McLaren and Ferrari once again looked
strong, finishing the day a full second ahead of the competition.

The Formula One 2000 season finally began today with free practice
at the Albert Park, Melbourne. McLaren and Ferrari once again looked
strong, finishing the day a full second ahead of the competition. But,
with teams working on different agendas in this practice session, the
real test of performance will not come until tomorrow's qualifying.

For Benson and Hedges Jordan there were mixed results. Heinz-Harald
Frentzen enjoyed a trouble free session, completing 35 laps in the 7th
best time of the day. Jarno Trulli was beset by problems and did not run
in the morning because of a gearbox oil leak. He finished the session in
15th place.

Commenting on the day, Frentzen said, ""I had a good trouble free
session working on all the things we wanted to test so I am quite
satisfied with how that went. We completed 35 laps which has given us
some good information to work on for tomorrow."

Trulli was disappointed with his day. "Today was very disappointing for
me as I lost a lot of time of the track because of various problems. I
lost the whole of the first session because of an oil leak in the
gearbox and in the afternoon session I had a problem with the gearbox
and the clutch. It meant I have not been able to work on the balance of
the car as much as I would have liked. But I do have some data to work
on this evening and this will help us decide what we need to work on
tomorrow morning."

Jacques Villeneuve ran strongly in the BAR, finishing in 5th place,
with a surprisingly fast Pedro Diniz behind him in 6th.F1 newcomer
Jenson Button, in the Williams team, finished 18th, but looked happy
enough with the day's work when he attended an official FIA press
conference in the afternoon. Jarno Trulli was also invited to the
conference. In answer to journalists' questions about how he found life
at Jordan, the Italian said, "I am really happy in my new team. Everyone
is so professional and we are working very well together. This will be a
very important season for me and I am really looking forward to racing
in a competitive car."